It is related that a French business man accepted the invitation of a prominent man of that city to visit Chicago. The two started from New York and began to talk about the rapid development of the country, and the visitor remarked: “You Americans are a boastful people. I will wager a sum of money that before we have been in Chicago thirty minutes, at least two of your fellow-citizens will have proven it to me.” The wager was made. Upon alighting from the train the Chicago man met a friend and introduced his guest. Almost in a breath the friend saluted the French visitor, and urged him to visit the stockyards at once, because “they are the largest in the world!” Fifteen minutes later, at a club, the Frenchman won his wager, when a prominent merchant invited him to tour the business district in an automobile and see the “greatest commercial center in the world!”
Such pride is natural in a peop!e who have done great things in a short period of years. Our commerce is great, and our trade extends to the corners of the earth,—the product of
